Four-year anniversary: USA tops Japan, claims 10th Women’s Softball World title in Surrey, Canada

Four years ago today, USA went undefeated in the 2016 WBSC Women’s Softball World Championship to regain the world crown, following back-to-back championships by Japan in 2012 and 2014. It was USA’s 10th overall world title in the history of the event. The global tournament was held at Softball City in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, from 15-24 July 2016.

The 31 participating teams were divided into eight groups to open the tournament, with 11 nations from four continents making their historic debuts in the event: Brazil, Ecuador, India, Ireland, Israel, Kenya, Pakistan, Peru, Serbia, Switzerland and Uganda.

After nine days of competition, USA and Japan met in softball's World Championship Game. Japan and the United States finished atop their pools undefeated in both the preliminary and championship round-robins to advance to the playoffs. Japan shut out Mexico, 2-0, while the United States defeated Venezuela, 7-0, to advance to the semi-final games.

In the first semi-final, the United States defeated Japan, 4-3, to advance to the gold medal game, before Japan defeated Canada, 11-1, in the second semi-final (bronze medal game) to set up a re-match with USA in the final.

The US team used four pitchers (Ally Carda, Jessica Moore, Jaclyn Traina and Delanie Gourley) and a pair of 3-run homers by Michele Moultrie and Haylie McCleney to defeat Japan in the final, 7-3, and regain the world title after six years (USA had won the World Championship for the last time in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2010).

USA won their 10th world championship and 14^th medal in the history of the event, missing the podium only once, in 1982. For Japan, it was their seventh consecutive time on the podium (including two titles in Whitehorse 2012 and Haarlem 2014) and fifth silver medal overall. Canada completed the podium, taking home their third overall medal (silver in San Salvador 1978 and bronze in Caracas 2010).